SUMMER 2021
Volunteering Update
Community Board Projects
Bucks Goat Centre Garden
Armed Forces Covenant Fund
Chilterns New Shoots
Health and Wellbeing
And discover who is getting creative with local wood! 1
Welcome to our Summer 2021 newsletter
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Welcome and Volunteering Update
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Community Board Updates
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Bucks Goat Centre Garden
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Chilterns New Shoots
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Creatures with Character
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Health and Wellbeing
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Armed Forces Covenant Fund
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Summer 2021 — Welcome back! As I write this we are about to move to step 3 of the road map and things are looking, whisper it quietly, a bit more positive for the coming summer months. We are keen to really get going on so many projects which have been paused or on tick over whilst we got through an awful 2020 and much of 2021. During this period we were working hard to give you all the opportunities to join us outdoors. You know the patter by now, sessions with us help your mental well-being by being in nature and helping give back, it makes such a difference. Never before has your help been more needed than now. Lockdowns 2 & 3 saw record amounts of littering and we need to get that sorted. One of our busiest times is when summer turns to autumn as this is when we plant things and cut them down ready for it all to start again. However, now is the time to enjoy the fruits of your labour - those wildflowers butterflies and bees should be at their best over the coming weeks, get out there and enjoy it all. One of the key things we want to achieve as we emerge from this pandemic is to make sure young people have opportunities to channel their time and energy towards helping their local environment. Young people contact us, wanting to help so we know they care deeply and are really keen. If you have or know some young people who would like to join in with improving our environment please put them in touch via email: info@chilternrangers.co.uk or social media. Have a great summer. —John Shaw
Volunteering Update We are able to welcome back more and more of our wonderful volunteers at last! We are using Doodle polls for you to book yourselves in when a volunteering opportunity appeals to you. These enable us to monitor numbers and keep the sessions fun and safe. Please contact us if you are interested in receiving our outdoor volunteering doodle polls by emailing steph@chilternrangers.co.uk or to speed up the process, complete our forms and return them to us. You can download the forms from our website. Also, keep an eye out on Facebook for further opportunities to volunteer!
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Community Board Updates
A “Wild Patch” for wildlife in Chesham.
Chesham Community Board: Cemetary Community Garden, April We had such a lovely mix of volunteers for this project: families, the Friends of Chesham Cemetery, Chesham in Bloom, Chesham Town Council and Chiltern Rangers Volunteers. We couldn’t have done it without them and created so many little wildlife havens in two days: Wildflower and Cherry Tree Seating Perch Planters on the hill with reflective messages sign written, Bird Feeder Pollinator Patch, an Arty Bird Boxes Walk, a Wild Patch, a Long Grass Insect Habitat Strip and Wildflower Beds. We are looking forward to seeing all the seed germinate as we continue to work to keep Bucks Buzzing! Please contact us if you would like to get involved in building or looking after these community wildlife area projects. We would love to see you! Thanks to Chesham and Villages LAF (now Chesham and Villages Community Board), the Friends of Chesham Cemetery, Chesham Town Council and Buckinghamshire & Milton Keynes Natural Environment Partnership for funding this project. 4
Volunteers built beautiful birdboxes, and planted seeds for pollinating insects.
South West Chilterns Community Board: Strawberry Bank, March We spent a very pleasant day on Strawberry Bank in March with a few volunteers. It was great to get out and clear a bit of scrub. This work is generally aimed at helping the butterflies by creating sheltered ‘holes’ in the scrub that gives our butterflies a chance to get out of the wind. Of course this helps most insects and creates more edge habitat and greater area for those important chalk grassland flowers. Thank you to everyone who helped.
North West Chilterns Community Board: Small Dean Bank, March We were as excited as the pupils were to be out in the glorious sunshine and Chilterns’ countryside on this day! It was a great team effort bringing together Year 5 students from Hughenden Primary School, staff from the National Trust who hosted us, Butterfly Conservation Upper Thames branch and Buckinghamshire Council’s North West Chilterns Community Board. We all joined together to clear scrub off the bank to create better habitat for wildlife, especially the rare Duke of Burgundy butterfly. Images from top: Volunteers at Strawberry Bank; the Duke of Burgundy butterfly; Hughenden Primary School students helping out at Small Dean Bank (right and below).
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Community Garden Project: Bucks Goat Centre
Some of the team at the Bucks Goat Centre.
In April, Rangers Paul and John Shaw, Ranger Artist Dan Wilson and Chiltern Ranger Volunteer Karina were helped by a team of young people and staff from Aylesbury Youth Concern, Goat Centre Staff and some visiting children and families who decided to help us for a while as part of their visit. The Bucks Goat Centre had a garden that needed re-invigorating for wildlife, and 11 young people and 16 adults gave over 70 hours of their time to make this project happen. Justin’s garden has now been transformed, it was lovely to see visitors being drawn into the garden with lots of butterfly and moth friendly planting: Holly and Ivy for the Holly Blue, Nasturtiums to attract large and small whites, Fuschia for the Elephant Hawkmoth, mini wildflower seed patches, nettle patches for our nettle loving butterflies, and more! Stepping stones were revealed for children to jump about on, log habitat piles and extra seating areas were created, sheds and walls were painted with all framed by Dan’s giant butterfly murals. 6
Before...
...and after!
Some enthusiastic volunteers from the day (above), and work in progress on transforming the garden (right).
We would love to see lots of people re-wilding patches of their gardens/window boxes in a similar way as we work together to Keep Bucks Buzzing. We are thankful to the the Heart of Bucks Green Community Fund, the Rothschild Foundation and Bucks & Milton Keynes NEP for helping to fund this project, and to volunteer Sue Louttit who gave us over 70 plants that she had grown for us over the lockdown months. Please contact us if you are interested in volunteering and being part of the team in building these special garden projects or looking after them afterwards.
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Chilterns New Shoots This summer we launch the very first Chilterns New Shoots programme, a project for 15 to 20 year olds who love wildlife, nature and looking after our planet. Naturally, our focus is the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Beauty - one of the most enchanting places in England and a great place to start learning more about the natural world and British wildlife. One of the strengths of the project is the partnership between us and the Chilterns Conservation Board with support from the National Trust, the Chiltern Society and our local Wildlife Trust, BBOWT. Each month, we will visit a different local wildlife reserve hosted by each of our partners and focus on a different taxonomic group including birds, butterflies and plants. Local experts will support the sessions and the young people will have the chance to take part in various activities relating to species identification and surveying techniques. We will run a bird-ringing demonstration with an ecologist, a morning with an expert from Butterfly Conservation and a stint with professionals whose specialism is plants and wildflowers. All of this will happen on some of the most beautiful wildlife sites across the Chilterns! In the autumn and winter, the Chilterns New Shoots team will return to the sites which they enjoyed in the summer to lend a hand to the Rangers whose job is to conserve and manage the habitats for wildlife. We will teach them how 8
different habitats need different methods of management to support various species. They will be having a go at scrub bashing, habitat creation and restoration, coppicing and woodland thinning plus a session or two in the River Wye. One highlight will be a visit to RSPB Otmoor in Oxfordshire, an expansive floodplain grazing marsh, home to wading birds and wildfowl year round. We will be sure to tell you all about the exciting things the young people see and hear over the next year! If you or someone that you know would be interested in the Chilterns New Shoots programme, email steph@chilternrangers.co.uk as there may be spaces left and we hope to run the programme next year too. Thank you to the National Lottery for funding this opportunity for young naturalists.
Creatures with Character Crafted from Local Buckinghamshire Wood One of our creative young volunteers, Jasper, has been making beautiful animal sculptures using locally-sourced wood. Jasper is donating a percentage of every sale of his hand-carved sculptures to Chiltern Rangers. A massive thank you to this enterprising student. Hi, I’m Jasper, I’ve just turned 15 years old and I live locally. I’ve always loved woodworking and last summer I volunteered with Chiltern Rangers, helping build bird boxes and other things for a hospital garden. It was so much fun and, during the second lockdown I started making wooden animals in my garage (reindeer for Christmas and then wooden bunnies for Easter). I donated a percentage of the sale of every one to charity. They proved very popular and I was able to donate nearly £700 to ‘The One Can Trust’ (High Wycombe food bank) from the sales of my Easter Bunnies recently. I am now making owls and pigs out of local Buckinghamshire wood that I find on the ground during walks and I have decided to support the
amazing work that Chiltern Rangers and their volunteers do, donating a percentage of any sales to help fund future Chiltern Rangers’ projects that will help our local Bucks wildlife. Every piece that I make is a little bit different and has its own unique character. I make pieces in a variety of sizes – ideal for mantle pieces, shelves, kitchen tables, doorsteps or bigger pieces for the garden. Further information on how you can purchase one of Jasper’s creations and help Chiltern Rangers, is available by clicking here to visit our website.
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West Wycombe.
Health and Wellbeing One of the things that has been emphasised over the past year is that nature is good for us. It sounds simple and maybe a bit obvious, but it is true. Why? Nature can improve your mood, reduce stress, leave you ‘restored’ and make you calmer. Nature can help you be more active, give you a bit of ‘time out’ and maybe even make you kinder. There has been a lot of research in psychology and neuroscience, and many other areas, which has revealed that being in nature triggers specific responses in our nervous system. Exposure to various bacteria in the soil increases our resilience to stress, and our skin—rather than being a sort of shield of flesharmour—responds to airborne micro-organisms. Recent research has also shown that genes related to depression are also linked to the 10
Ranger John Taylor nervous and immune systems, and engaging with nature enhances our immune systems. Our senses also connect us to the natural world in many ways, from the shapes and forms we see (our eyes respond to the fractal patterns found in nature), the feel of bark on or fingers or sunshine on our faces and the scent of wildflowers or blossom in the breeze. We become more ‘mindful’ when in nature. Some of the most interesting research has been around the Japanese practice of ‘Shinrinyoko’ or ‘Forest Bathing’. In the early 1980s it was proposed that citizens of Japan should take mindful, multisensory walks in woodland to improve their mental health. This seems to have brought huge benefits and is now a key part of healthcare provision and routinely prescribed! In Japan there are now over 60 forests with ‘Forest Bathing’ certification.
Engaging with nature can take many forms – it can be in woods, meadows, parks and gardens or through window-boxes and even house plants. Making connections with nature isn’t just about the countryside – nature weaves its threads in many ways through our cities and towns. As much joy can be had through the simple interaction of watching birds on a feeder as going for a long walk in a National Park. Studies have shown that ‘microbreaks’ in nature, for example looking for a while at something living and green (as opposed to concrete) improves wellbeing and helps the mind function. Nature can also inspire a bit of creativity – painting, crafting, drawing and photography are all good things to have a go at, and it is really, really important for our young people to get outside. Recent reports show that 75% of children aged 5-12 spend less time outside than prison inmates and one in four children under the age of 6 has a smartphone and spends more than 20 hours a week on it. It may be a surprise to learn that ‘Nature Deficit Disorder’ in children is now a recognised condition. Many people have been finding more of a connection to the natural world in recent months and it is really encouraging seeing people engage with the local environment. If you haven’t been able to, now is a good time to get outside as nature has re-emerged from winter slumber.
Images from top: a pair of Six-spotted Burnet moths; a volunteer gets creative on a birdbox; Small Tortoiseshell butterfly.
MD’s note: John Taylor is sadly leaving us and we would like to thank him so much for all his hard work especially working as the Ranger for Marsh and Micklefield. He has recruited many volunteers who have enjoyed working with him and learning from him. We shall also miss his insightful written contributions, such as this article. Thank you and we wish you the best of luck for the future John! 11
Armed Forces Covenant Fund We are delighted to announce some very exciting news. We are lucky enough to be the recipients of funding from the Armed Forces Covenant Fund for our new project ‘Forces for Nature’. From August 2021 until June 2022 we’ll run sessions for HM Armed Forces personnel: from cadets to veterans and all of those in between! Everyone who takes part will learn new skills or develop existing ones including using hand tools, learning about traditional woodland management and conservation techniques, a few bush craft skills, and how to identify common British wildlife. We’ll be putting those skills into action by creating new wild areas and helping restore existing habitats. The sessions are not exclusively for our Armed Forces so do look out for opportunities to learn about wildlife and nature in a relaxed setting. More importantly, we are going to have loads of fun! If you are a member of the Armed Forces family, old or new, please get in touch with steph@chilternrangers.co.uk to find out more. If you run a cadet group, we would love to hear from you too!
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From all of us at Chiltern Rangers...
Have a wonderful summer! If you would like further information about any of the articles in this issue, please contact us: email: info@chilternrangers.co.uk call: 01494 474 486
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Inspiring and enriching communities, through conservation, education & community engagement 13
